A LITTLE HISTORY
It is now 200 years since John Cockerill, who had arrived in Europe a few years earlier, set up in Seraing. William I of Orange, King of the Netherlands, handed him the keys to the chateau which today bears his name, as a sign of support for the mechanization of industry in Europe. The industrial revolution is underway!
The visionary John Cockerill was to put in motion a multitude of projects here, which are for ever to leave their mark on the Belgian, European and even worldwide industrial landscape: weaving looms, steam engines, guns, boilers, steelmaking, locomotives, ship engines…
Dying in 1840 during a business trip to Warsaw, John Cockerill leaves his heirs an entrepreneurial spirit and a know-how which still live on 200 years after his arrival in Seraing.
CMI becomes John Cockerill.
CMI celebrates the bicentennial of John Cockerill's arrival in Seraing and creates the John Cockerill Foundation.
After 4 years of diversification in environmental solutions, CMI turns it into a fully fledged line of business
Cockerill Mechanical Industries becomes Cockerill Maintenance & Ingénierie. This change of name highlights the determination of CMI to capitalise on the synergies from its two core lines of business, maintenance and engineering.
Usinor, a shareholder of the Walloon steelmaker Cockerill Sambre, sells CMI to an independent private shareholding structure, which still owns the Group to this day.
Cockerill’s Mechanical Construction division becomes a subsidiary of the steelmaking concern Cockerill Sambre and takes the name of Cockerill Mechanical Industries (CMI).
Cockerill develops the market of electric and nuclear power plants
From merger to merger, the company’s centre of gravity veers from mechanical construction to steelmaking.
Construction of the T12: a legendary locomotive
Cockerill celebrates its 110<sup>th</sup> anniversary, with a visit from King Albert I.
Liège world’s fair. Cockerill rhymes with innovation on many fronts.
Belgium is the world’s number 2 economic power
Expansion in China and construction of steel plants, bridges, and the first great railway from Beijing to Hankou (1904)
Construction of steamers in Hoboken for the exploration of the Congo River by Stanley
Construction of the first transatlantic ocean liner
Construction of the first suspension bridge of Seraing, the first one made of iron in the region, that enabled workers to get to work by a means other than by boat
Creation of the first “société anonyme” [public limited company] : Les Etablissements John Cockerill
Death of John Cockerill in Warsaw.
Construction of “Le Belge” [the Belgian], the first steam locomotive on the European continent.
Manufacturing of cannon carriages
Firing of the first blast furnace in the region
